Existing comment:
Machine Guns:
Since the first single-shot muzzle loading firearms appeared in Europe in the late Middle Ages, military thinkers tried to devise a weapon that would fire many times in quick succession. The principal obstacle was the limitation of muzzle loading. Devices were made to produce a volley or ripple of fire, but the rate could not be maintained because of the slowness of reloading. The invention of the metallic cartridge in the mid-19th century permitted machine feeding, self-ignition, and breech sealing against the escape of hot propellant gases.
By the 1860s, manually operated designs were in use, but it was not until 1884 that Hiram Maxim produced the first fully automatic machine gun. Maxim's concept was to harness a portion of the energy of the exploding charge to power the operating cycle. Examples of manually operated guns were the Ager "Coffee Mill", Gatling, French Mitrailleuse, and Nordenfelt. Such weapons usually employed either a lever or a crank. The rate of fire depended on how quickly the operator turned the handle, and some devices were faster than others. |